Sonic the hedgehog:The Solaris paradox
by Speedhog58
Summary: Sonic has finally put a stop to the time eater and reality is saved...or so it seems, during the temporal crisis some of Sonic's actions created far reaching consequences...including the return of a darkness that no one is truly prepared for...
1. Darkness incarnate

Chapter 1

DARKNESS INCARNATE

It began in two days that never were, two days where times collided, societies collapsed and a hero fell, a story of past, present and future, this is the story of the return of time demon Mephiles the dark.

He had finally done it, Solaris had finally wiped out reality past, present and future despite the interruption from the three chaos powered rodents, Sonic, the persistent glory hog who never took a situation seriously until it was too late and yet still had to be taught death twice, Silver, his former enemy as iblis and lackey as Mephiles who's naive attitude undid him when he was put in his place, and Shadow, the self-proclaimed ultimate life form stumbling around in the dark trying to stop the inevitable outcome of the battle which he can only blame himself for losing.

Solaris could feel the remnants of his former adversaries scattering across time to die, he could be feel the foolish scientist gasping in terror and confusion, he could feel shadow cry out in realisation of his failure, he could also feel…no…it couldn't be…sonic had found his way to the alter…but how…the girl…the bearer…she told him…he's blowing it out… "NOOOOO!" screamed Mephiles as he was torn from his brethren and sent into a temporal hell where all paradoxes go…whitespace.

It felt like years that he was dammed to that empty void despite for all Mephiles knew it could have it could have been seconds due to time having little to no meaning there both metaphorically and literally but then…it happened, whitespace started to tear open like wet paper as a creature that seemed to be of both spiritual and mechanical origin started to send different time zones into the void, upon closer inspection this seemed to be a creation of the fat man in the pod, Mephiles also noticed life forms falling into the void including the three rodents who foiled his grand plan but then he realised he wanted their suffering to come from him alone, so Mephiles placed a barrier around each of them to stop them from diminishing like the rest after finding the chaos emeralds and selectively placing them throughout the void, if they found the emeralds then they would defeat the foolish scientist and return to their time where he would follow them and if not…well…he would make the most out of the opportunity.

Mephiles stood over the unconscious Shadow "Enjoy this child's play while it lasts Shadow, your time will come soon enough" he said to the paralysed hedgehog who had caused him so much grief, Mephiles then began to wait...

Mephiles knew when his plan worked as the timelines began to disappear he then started to move to the nearest exit before he spotted 3 all too familiar figures nearby his own erased timeline "Time for retribution…" Mephiles chuckled evilly as moved in to face his first and most obvious target.

THIS CHAPTER ORIGINALLY STARTED OUT AS JUST A PROJECT AND EXPERIMENT I HONESTLY NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD COME THIS FAR, THIS SEEMS TO BE THE MOST VIEWED CHAPTER IN THE WHOLE STORY THOUGH I RECOMEND READING THE REST OF THE STORY TWO, HOPE YOU ENJOYED!


	2. Past and future tense

Chapter 2

PAST AND FUTURE TENSE

At another place...at another time...

The sun was high in the sky as Sonic waited around outside his camp tapping his feet as he did so "C'mon..." Sonic murmured "How can a time traveller turn up this late?" his impatience was cut short by a shining yellow light that momentarily dazzled by the tree Sonic had marked accordingly "-Control…next time leave a more obvious marker, not all trees stay around for 200 years you know" said Silver the hedgehog who was still glowing from chronos control, Sonic grinned "Hey there time guy, I haven't seen you in months! How longs it been since my birthday from your end?" "Yesterday actually" Silver replied with a hint of annoyance on this face "He he…my bad" Sonic chuckled as he laid back to enjoy the sun for a moment before speaking again "I asked you to come because your always uptight about everything every time you come to this time" Silver grunted "Yeah? What about it?" Sonic continued "Wellll I just thought it would be great if you could stay here for a vacation or something, to cut lose like me!" "Like you…" Silver said sarcastically "Well okay not like me" Sonic rushed out "But seriously, take in the views, enjoy the food and see more of the past first hand" Silver considered it for a moment before answering "Well I…guess as a time traveller I have all time in the world, fine…for 1 week" "Trust me, you'll love it!" Sonic said triumphantly.

DAY 1

"Hey Tails! Are all the rings set?" Sonic shouted while holding on to the wing of Tails's super jet the tornado "Yeah! There all set up!" shouted back Tails before Silver who was outfitting the lightspeed augments into his shoes while flying next to the plane interrupted the conversation "Are you sure this is safe?" Sonic chuckled "Define safe! YAAAHHHOOOO!" Sonic zipped across the down spiralling trail of rings that had been set out "It's okay! All you have to do is touch the first ring, its completely safe! Tails yelled over the turbulence "Fine, if you say so!" Silver replied as he hesitantly touched the first ring of the second trail "Ohhh GOD!" Silver was sent flying down the spiral, Tails flinched as he saw fragments of vomit fly out.

DAY 3

Sonic sniggered as he finished loading up the game on his computer "Hey Silver! Come here, there's this game you've GOT to play" Silver reluctantly walked over to the computer and looked at the title screen "Okay let's see, SLENDER…sooo you want me to play this?" "Yeah it's got a few scares in it but I'm sure it's nothing Mr warrior from the future can't handle, right?" sonic said smugly, Silver didn't give him the satisfaction of a response, Sonic left the room after switching off the light, Sonic stood outside the room for about 2 Minuit's before… "AHHHHHHH!" Silver screamed before something flew out of the door to the room and into a wall, Sonic was having a silent laughing fit before karma took hold and he realised that what had hit the wall…was the computer.

DAY 5

Sonic and Silver soured across the desert landscape leaving blue and cyan afterimages in their wake "I'm going to beat you this time!" taunted Silver as he slowly overtook sonic "Admit it! I can fly faster than you can run!" he continued before he was once again in draw with Sonic "Neverrrrr!" the blue hedgehog shouted immaturely before in an instant they both found themselves headfirst in the palms of a certain black and red hedgehog, their pain receptors kicked in causing both Silver and Sonic to yell and curse at their impact before Shadow dragged them back into reality "Stop bellyaching and listen, you're both coming with me to help clean up the mess this blue idiot made" Sonic looked up at Shadow, not understanding what was going on "What mess? Where're we going?" Shadow took a moment to reply "Whitespace"

THIS CHAPTER IS MAINLY COMEDY BASED AS THIS IS BEFORE IT GETS INTO THE THICK OF THINGS, IT GAVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPRESS SONIC'S IMMATURE ATTITUDE AND COCKINESS NOT TO MENTION THE SLENDER REFERENCE, HOPE YOU ENJOYED!


	3. Distractions

Chapter 3

DISTRACTIONS

The sky was clear as Knuckles sat atop the shrine of the master emerald, the times lately had been peaceful but so painfully dull, the guardian hated himself for thinking the way he did for action had often proved to have more bad consequences than it was worth, Chaos was a direct result of his failure to protect the master emerald and resulted in the destruction of station square and about nearly half its population, space colony A.R.K nearly obliterated most of the world and that…Sonic android took both him Tails and Sonic in super forms to beat, that's why he had laid so low the last couple of years, even when the earth itself shattered apart he stood his ground, but then there was that other entity…it went by the name of "Nazo" if he remembered right, he too was sealed inside the master emerald, how many more were there sealed away in that gem? Were they all as powerful as the first two? Were they stronger? He did not know, Knuckles continued to ponder this idea in the peaceful glow of the master emerald.

"…CONTROL!" Knuckles heard before looking over the edge of the pyramid to see Sonic, Shadow and that somewhat annoying kid from the future, Knuckles then noticed the bright green chaos emerald clutched in Shadow's hand "I will never understand how he keeps getting that same emerald" the Echidna murmured before gliding down to meet the 3 "I don't suppose your here to return that emerald to its rightful place" Knuckles said almost knowing the answer before Sonic said somewhat nervously "Actually…Knux we're…kinda here to use the other 3 you've got horded up there" Knuckles tensed up "You…better have a good reason" he replied before reminding himself that Shadow and Silver were involved and were not the types to mess around "We require 4 chaos emeralds to examine a…problem with reality, you can have them back once we've accomplished our mission" explained Shadow who was growing impatient with the guardian's lack of cooperation "Fine" Knuckles grunted "As long as you…" Knuckles was interrupted by the sound of gunfire and missile impacts, the group looked and saw several of Eggman's pursuit mechs and the Tornado falling down with a trail of smoke, Sonic winced "TAILS!" he shouted as he ran up the pyramid, launched himself into the air and ricocheted off the mechs like a bullet until he bolted through the tornado and landed with his friend in his arms "It's okay buddy" Sonic told Tails as helped him off the ground "I'm sorry, I…tried to warn you but…they were too fast…" Tails panted out as he pointed at the coming armada lead by the all too familiar moustache clad scientist "I originally planned to interrogate the location of the remaining emeralds out of the Echidna, but now I see you have already so kindly retrieved them FOR me!" announced Doctor Eggman in a booming voice "Now hand them over! Failure to comply will result in the destruction of this air bound wasteland! If you cooperate however…oh who am I kidding? I'm killing you all either way!" Sonic looked up in disbelief "Eggman? But you were locked in whitespace, how the HELL did you get out?" The scientist looked highly amused "Yes a great feat indeed! For which I must thank you…SONIC!" Was this some kind of joke? Sonic thought to himself as he tried to make sense out of what the Doctor had said "What are talking about?" Sonic reacted, knowing this would probably only satisfy Eggman's control over the situation, Eggman laughed "There is no point telling you if you're going to die anyway! ALL UNITS OPE…" "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted before the doctor could finish his sentence, the whole world grinded to a halt leaving only Shadow, Sonic and Silver able to move "Shadow what you doing?" Sonic asked in increased frustration as Shadow summoned the other 3 emeralds to him which along with the 4th formed a circle around the 3 of them "What we do in whitespace is much more important than what we do here" said Shadow calmly "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS?!" Sonic shouted in disbelief that Shadow was leaving everybody for dead, Shadow glared at Sonic with an aura of authority "We're using chaos control you idiot, we can be back here within a second" Sonic grudgingly accepted defeat as the chaos emeralds began to spin around them "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted before it began to grow brighter and brighter, Silver could have sworn he saw a nearby flash of dark purple light nearby before vision completely disappeared.

I TRIED TO MAKE THIS A MORE CLIMACTIC CHAPTER THAN MOST OTHERS BY PLACING CHARACTERS IN MUCH GREATER DANGER THAN USUAL, ALSO NOTE HOW CONTINUITY IS ESTABLISHED WITH THE FACT THAT EGGMAN SHOULD BE TRAPPED IN WHITESPACE, THE PURPLE LIGHT AT THE END IS ALSO A TEASER FOR A LATER CHAPTER, HOPE YOU ENJOYED!


	4. An old freind

Chapter 4

AN OLD FREIND

The 3 hedgehogs stood in complete nothingness, the eternal void were all things erased from existence resided, Silver's attention however was more directed toward Shadow "You've been talking about this "problem" here, but A: How is it a threat if it's been erased from existence and B: How do you even know about it if we only just got here? Lectured Silver who spoke a little too soon as shortly afterwards the group heard a voice "Because of me" said the voice which came from the approaching figure of a hedgehog who on closer inspection of voice and appearance was…Sonic? He may have looked a little different but the face and voice were definitely that of Sonic's, he looked different though, he was wearing a grey jacket, his shoes were worn and burnt in some areas and his quills were shorter his cocky counterpart but they were obviously the same person "Okaayyy I think I'm having a migraine" Sonic dragged out as he stared at his counterpart, as Shadow walked up to the alternate Sonic one of Silvers questions was answered, the other Sonic began to speak again "I see you brought the other me with you, who's the other one? "His name is Silver the hedgehog, he's a time traveller from my world's future" Shadow replied, wanting to get to the point before the other Sonic continued "That…your Sonic, is he the same one that I met 7 years ago?" "Ugh...yes he is" responded Shadow who was getting more than a bit impatient, "I still don't get it, who ARE you? Asked Silver who like Sonic had no idea what was going on "I'm Sonic the hedgehog" the other Sonic joked, Silver knew he was messing with him "Well that attitude pretty much seals it but SERIOUSLY who are you? Where did you come from?" the other Sonic's expression quickly changed from comical to a more serious look "I'm from an alternate universe where our timelines were identical until a few weeks after I defeated Metal Sonic, you're world's Robotnik came back to my time with a creature that erased my timeline and sent me here where I met YOU Sonic" Sonic's heart skipped a beat as he realised just who this Sonic was "Wait a minute, your…" "Yeah, I was the your younger self during that whole mess, but back to the point, the reason our worlds are different is because a few years later in my world we were invaded by an alien race calling themselves "The Black Arms", they landed this huge mass on my planet, which harvested people and…a-and…" the other Sonic's voice started to break "I…I really don't want to THINK about it let loan talk about it" Sonic was highly confused "But…in my world Shadow destroyed them, how did you lose?" Shadow re-entered the conversation "That's the problem, in his world the doctor never awakened me because he was stuck here" "So to fix your timeline…" Silver started before the other Sonic finished the sentence for him "We need to restore my Robotnik"

"The group carried on travelling through the seemingly endless white void "Heerree eggy eggy eggy!" Shouted Sonic in his usual immature tone, the other Sonic chuckled as he remembered what it was like to be so carefree "I'll be happier when I only have to put up with one of him" murmured Shadow before hearing a faint and familiar "…Such a great mess that YOU got us into" "That's him!" Shadow announced before moving to the left, straight forward and then…upwards? "I miss the laws of physics" Sonic murmured as he and the others struggled to keep track let loan follow Shadow, the 3 of them eventually found Shadow standing in front of Eggman and a Unconscious Robotnic "Shadow…what did you do?" Sonic asked nervously "I used chaos control to erase all recollection of this event out of his head so he won't remember anything in advance that could threaten your counterpart's timeline "Jeez, thanks!" said the other Sonic "I never really took that into account" for a second time Shadow raised a chaos emerald this time accompanied by 4 others floating around it "CHAOS CONTROL!" Robotnic vanished in a flash of green light "He does realise he doesn't have to shout it right?" whispered Silver to Sonic who replied "Just go with it" the other Sonic also began to glow "Sooo…will I remember any of this?" he asked, growing brighter by the second "I have tuned your reality so that you will remember meeting our Sonic 7 years ago, but not these events or any details of your future that you saw 7 years ago" explained Shadow with a suppressed smile on his face "Bummer, thanks for everything guys! And Sonic! It was great seeing you again!" the other Sonic began to fade back into his own reality "Enjoy your future!" shouted Sonic as his counterpart's image disappeared "It's gonna be great"

IT WAS INTERESTING EXPLORING A SONIC "WHAT IF?" SCENARIO, IT ALWAYS BUGGED ME HOW NONE OF THE SERIES SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITH ROBOTNIK TRAPPED IN WHITESPACE AND THE POTENTIAL DANGERS OF HIS ABSENCE BUT NOW...PROBLEM SOLVED!


	5. Darkness returns

Chapter 5

DARKNESS RETURNS

"Now that that's done we should head back to our own reality" said Shadow as he began to prepare the chaos emeralds before being interrupted by Eggman "Not without me you're not!" the doctor shouted as he grabbed Shadow's leg in an somewhat pathetic attempt to trick Shadow into taking him with him, Shadow flung his leg sending the doctor flying off it before turning his attention to a nearby timeline, it was a huge desolate city coated in lava, fire and various demonic creatures "Silver, when did this happen?" Silver pulled out his time stone and pointed it at timeline, the stone glowed and Silver winced "When did it happen Silver?" Shadow demanded impatiently "It happened…" Silver started "It happened one year before your present" "WHAT?" Sonic and Shadow shouted at the same time before they heard a laugh, a dark and indescribably evil laugh "Where are you! Show yourself!" Shadow exclaimed before hearing the same voice whisper as though it was right against his ear "I'm right here" Shadow turned around almost instantly before Sonic and Silver did the same, there standing in the middle of the white void was a figure standing limply that greatly resembled Shadow, it's appearance was identical to that of Shadow apart it being devoid of all colour, but as it raised it's head it was revealed to have green slit like pupils and no visible mouth, Shadow stepped back a little accidently putting one foot over the line between the void and the bleak timeline behind them, a series of images flooded his mind that he could not understand nor comprehend "Shadow!" said the voice of Sonic that dragged him back into the non-existent reality that they were in "Are you okay?" the blue hedgehog continued having noticed Shadow's look of mental distance for a moment, Shadow didn't know what any of the images meant but something in the back of his mind told him that this creature could not be allowed to leave whitespace, Shadow summoned the chaos emeralds out of his body before pointing his hand towards Sonic and Silver "CHAOS CONTROL!" he shouted as a green jet of light flew out of his hand "NOOOO!" shouted the overweight doctor Eggman as he dived in front of the beam and vanished in a blinding flash of light "DAMMIT!" Shadow exclaimed as he pulled the chaos emeralds back into his body "What? Where did Eggman go? What did you do?" Asked Silver who had completely lost track of everything "That beam was SUPPOSED to send you and Sonic back a week prior to Eggman's attack, but now it seems that I have only CAUSED that attack, but now I can't do that for at least another HALF AN HOUR!" Shadow shouted, livid from his failure "What a pity" said the dark entity which regained the trio's full attention "What will your next great failure be Shadow?" Shadow's eyes widened "Who are you? And how do you know my name?" Shadow demanded before the creature looked right at him with it's soul penetrating eyes "I am Mephiles the Dark!" Sonic was fed up of staying in the background and began the charge towards Mephiles "I don't care WHO you are! If you're looking for trouble…" Sonic began a homing attack at Mephiles but within a metre of the demon he was painfully knocked back through the air but flipped in mid-air and landed on his feet "Okay, what the hell was that?" Sonic exclaimed before Mephiles began to speak again "What's say we take this somewhere more interesting?" Mephiles then created a ball of dark purple energy and expanded it over the group before any had time to react, the light then started to fade as the Sonic, Silver and Shadow found themselves on Angel Island with Eggman's armada on the right, Sonic's now completely confused friends on the other and Mephiles in the centre of it all "…Fire?" Eggman finished before the mechs began to move but then sparked violently and fell to the ground, Mephiles's mere presence frying there interiors "no no! NO! NOO! NOOO!" Eggman screamed "YOUR ALL SUPPOSED TO BE TRAPPED OUTSIDE REALITY!" Sonic was absolutely clueless about what was going on and said the first thing that came to mind "For the record doc, it was Shadow who got you out not me!" "Funny…" said Mephiles who was slowly shifting into a crystalline form "So funny that I will reward you all with memories…that never were!" Mephiles began to glow violet "Enjoy the show" Mephiles chuckled evilly as everyone began to receive highly disturbing memories.

Sonic's mind seemed cave in with thoughts of…my, that's a pretty snazzy performance there…Elise…for the sake of the world I will destroy you...so if you use your chaos control…how did it come to this…this is terrible…so if I don't save Elise …you again…NOOO…CHAOS CONTROL…this ship is about to crash…thank you Elise…LETS HAVE SOME FUN SOLARIS…just smile, Silver began to recall a much different life…he'll just rise again…you have this person to blame…that blue hedgehog's the iblis trigger…I've finally found him…your actions will condemn us all…STOP…you again…follow me if you want the truth…it's a lucky charm…circumstances have changed…if I change things here…good luck silver…so that's why he wanted me to kill Sonic…THIS IS THE END PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM, Shadow burned with rage as he remembered the monster that destroyed reality…the sceptre off darkness…don't you remember me…a one way ticket to oblivion…they needed someone to blame…they feared you…I was deployed to eliminate you…Mephiles why are you getting in my way…he's trying to eliminate the past…I will remember you Shadow…what worked 10 years ago no longer does…why protect those who will betray you later…I will fight like I always have…It's all because of Solaris…maybe if he were still alive…TIME TO UNLEASH THE ULTIMATE POWER "Damm you, you monster" Shadow murmured as it subsided "It was all for nothing..."

The memories were now burned into everybody's minds, Shadow knew that even everyone's combined might couldn't stop Mephiles…unless…combined…that was the answer "Sonic!" Shadow shouted "W-what?" said a Sonic who's memories had nearly broke him "Remember Nazo?" Shadow hinted "Yeah" Sonic murmured and then grinned knowing exactly what Shadow had in mind, Shadow then threw Sonic a chaos emerald, held another in his own hand and "CHAOS CONTROL!" Sonic and Shadow shouted at the same time, they then both disappeared before a blinding green light formed in between where they were standing, the light then faded and revealed a blue hedgehog with streaks of red down his legs, arms and quills wearing inhibitor ringed socks and gloves and a pair of red jet skates with white stripes, Mephiles merely chuckled "Interesting…and what do call YOU exactly?" the hedgehog opened his eyes and grinned at Mephiles "I'm Shadic, Shadic the hedgehog!" he said in a slightly lighter version of Shadow's voice with Sonic's cockiness, he then pointed at Mephiles "And I'm here to KICK-YOUR-ASS!

THIS CHAPTER WAS BY FAR THE MOST FUN TO TYPE, IT CONTAINS SO MANY ELEMENTS THAT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED IN A SONIC GAME, CARTOON OR JUST ANY SONIC STORY, ESPECIALLY SHADIC'S SUPRISE APEARENCE, HOPE YOU LIKED IT!


	6. Equal terms

Chapter 6

EQUAL TERMS

Silver stared in disbelief as the being that was once Shadow and Sonic continued to grin at Mephiles with absolute confidence in his eyes which were green in in one eye and orange in the other "How did they do that?" Silver asked Knuckles who was still on edge a little "They've done this before, they used chaos control to teleport to the exact same point in space and time which overlapped them to create kind of a super being" Knuckles explained to Silver before Mephiles began to laugh yet again "I must admit I did not see this coming!" he said in a highly amused manner "But even combined you have no REAL hope of defeating me!" Tails had the sinking sensation that Mephiles was not bluffing, but then an idea sparked to mind "Knuckles, can you sense where Eggman's keeping the remaining 3 chaos emeralds? Knuckles concentrated for a moment before answering him "Yeah, he's got them in his egg mobile" said Knuckles pointing toward the new petrified scientist, Tails then turned to Silver "Silver, can you use your psychokinesis to send the remaining chaos emeralds to Shadic?" Silver raised his hand, not knowing if he could from such a distance "I'll try" he replied as his body started to glow cyan and before Eggman caught wind of what was happening the remaining chaos emeralds flew out of his transport "What? No! What's going on?" Eggman shouted as the 3 chaos emeralds started to circle Shadic "Thanks guys!" Shadic shouted before the emeralds became one with his body and he erupted into a torch of golden energy which cleared to reveal the now golden hedgehog with burning red eyes, he rose into the air to face Mephiles "Lets settle this" he said confidently to his crystalline enemy "NOW things are getting interesting, our powers seem to be…equal" the demon chuckled, welcoming the challenge before BANG! Shadic had just kicked Mephiles to the ground at an alarming speed "That all you got GEM BRAIN?" the hedgehog taunted as Mephiles calmly stood up before speaking with his non-existent mouth "Two rodents for the price of one" he then zipped towards Shadic at breath taking speed and Shadic did the same towards Mephiles.

The fight broke out as Shadic countered Mephiles's punches with several kicks in the face, Mephiles punched Shadic up out of the atmosphere before following only to be greeted by hundreds of chaos spears, he was able to deflect a few of them back at Shadic before both combatants took dozens of unblocked chaos spears to their chests and heads, as they both re-entered the atmosphere Shadic moved in and launched a brutal attack on Mephiles, visibly creating a crack in one of the demon's Crystalline quills, Mephiles then grabbed Shadic and held him in front of him to take the full burning heat of the re-entry, but Shadic wasn't finished so easily as he pressed one of his feet into Mephiles's face and sprayed the jet skate's ignition into his eye, Mephiles grunted in pain before planting his fist firmly is Shadic's stomach which knocked him away, the pair then almost instantly stopped in mid-air, once again above angel island "It's time to end this and send you back to oblivion!" Shadic said as he raised his hand, all 4 of his inhibitor rings loosened and his gold glow turned scarlet "CHAOS CONTROL!" a jet of green energy shot out of Shadic's hand and rocketed towards Mephiles "NEVER!" the demon screamed as he charged his hand up and then bounced the beam back towards Shadic, Shadic couldn't afford to be sent out of reality, the options he had were bad or worse, Shadic then vanished in a flash of light which Sonic an Shadow zipped out of, still in their super forms, the streak of green energy narrowly missed the 2 hedgehogs and instead hit the Egg carrier behind them, erasing it from existence, Sonic only just supressed a chuckle as he heard Eggman's reaction "I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!"

The 2 hedgehogs hovered in the air in front of Mephiles who stayed quiet, waiting to see who would move first, Shadow took the opportunity and teleported behind Mephiles "CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow shouted as he began to erupt in pure destruction, the blast was small but highly intensified as Sonic stared in awe at the mind numbing ball of chaos, as the light of the blast faded Sonic saw Mephiles who looked worn and chipped in his crystalline appearance, but he also saw Shadow…who was in base form and falling unconsciously to his death, Sonic made a split second choice and dived down, caught Shadow and teleported back to the floating island.

Sonic reverted from his super form as he approached Tails, Knuckles and Silver "Oh god…" Knuckles said quietly "I mean we all saw everything but I never imagined it was…THIS bad" "Where'd Eggman go?" asked Sonic after noticing the absence of the fat scientist to which Tailos replied "He flew off after the egg carrier disappeared" Sonic looked slightly amused "Typical..." Silver hit the side of the pyramid in frustration "Dammit! I should have done something! "You gave us the last 3 emeralds Silver" Sonic said, trying to calm Silver down "Without them we would all be dead by now" "He's coming too!" exclaimed Tails before Sonic and Silver could continue the conversation, Shadow slowly regained consciousness "Easy there Shadow" said Knuckles as he helped Shadow up "I can use the master emerald to heal you" but Shadow's eyes turned to Sonic "You okay?" asked the blue hedgehog who began to notice Shadow's undeniable glare of anger at him "You…imbecile" Shadow slowly said to Sonic while maintaining his glare of rage "You should've…taken Mephiles while he was…weakened…" he continued before Knuckles transferred him some energy from the master emerald "Phh…your WELCOME…" grunted Sonic who was hoping that Shadow would have at least thanked him for the save "YOU BETTER GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!" shouted the now rejuvenated Shadow "OR ELSE NO EMERALD IN EXISTENCE WILL BE ABLE TO FIX WHAT I DO TO YOU!" "REALLY now?" taunted Mephiles who had returned and was firing a spear of energy towards Shadow "OH NO YOU DON'T!" cried Sonic as he threw Shadow out of the way…but wasn't fast enough to avoid the incoming spear as it stabbed him…right through the back, time seemed to slow down as Shadow saw Sonic impaled on the spot, wincing as Mephiles let loose the laugh of a true sadist "MY, isn't this NOSTALGIC!" before swinging Sonic off the diminishing spear like a ragdoll "Under normal circumstances I would finish you ALL off, but killing that rat for the 3rd time has left me in a good mood! You all have 7 days to prepare for my return, and when I do I WILL kill all of you" Mephiles then let out an rage inducing evil laugh before vanishing into the shadows.

Tails was on the verge of tears "Sonic…SONIC!" Knuckles followed tails over to the hardly stirring hedgehog "OH GOD NO!" Shadow rushed over to Sonic before looking over at where Mephiles disappeared "You'll pay for this…" Silver stared at Sonic with images of a similar event flooding into his mind, Silver broke "No…not again…"

THIS WAS A HIGHLY ENJOYABLE CHAPTER FOR ME, DOING THE FIGHT SEQUENCE BETWEEN MEPHILES AND SUPER SHADIC PROVED MUCH EASIER THAN I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AND I'VE EVEN MANAGED TO ADD A FEW JOKES TO THIS MORE ACTION BASED CHAPTER, HOPE YOU ENJOYED!


	7. Blue blurry mind

Chapter 7

BLUE BLURRY MIND

Knuckles placed Sonic upon the master emerald quickly yet carefully before he touched the gem which began to glow green before Sonic did "He's going to be alright" Tails muttered to himself "He's GOT to be…" Sonic's visible injuries started to heal over before vanishing completely, the group looked at Sonic hoping for him to get up and make one of his bad jokes…but nothing happened "He's not getting up, Knuckles why isn't he getting up?" Tails whimpered as he waited for his closest thing to a family to wake up "Dammit!" Knuckles shouted "He's okay physically but the near death experience has sent his mind into flux!" Shadow thought for a second before pulling out a pair of chaos emeralds "CHAOS CONTROL!" he shouted before quickly disappearing and reappearing in a green flash of light "What did you-?" Knuckles started before Shadow answered him swiftly "I can use chaos control to link my mind to his and pull him out of the coma" "What?" Silver exclaimed "When did you learn to do that?" "4 months from now" grunted Shadow "Now be quiet, I need to focus" the group fell silent as Shadow sat down and prepare himself for a moment before quite calmly saying "Chaos control".

Shadow immediately found himself in a bizarre field filled with trees, no! Some kind of giant bushes…no! Chilli dogs…giant chilli dogs "Your appetite never ceases to amaze me" Shadow muttered to himself before navigating his way through the field of junk food, he eventually reached what seemed to be a lake, Shadow placed one foot on the water and realised he could walk across it like a solid, as he crossed the lake Shadow saw rather than his reflection, strange images that he couldn't make sense of until he stopped and looked into one only to be greeted by memories that were not his own.

As the smoke cleared, Sonic caught sight of a figure atop the wreckage that bared a disturbing resemblance to HIM "It all starts with this" the dark hedgehog said "A gem containing the ultimate power!" Sonic winced as he noticed JUST what his lookalike was holding "That's the chaos emerald!" Sonic shouted "It makes sense now; G.U.N has mistaken me for YOU!" the dark hedgehog showed attention but remained silent, Sonic lost his patience and charged "Say something you FAKER!" Sonic's lookalike held the chaos emerald above his head before finally speaking "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Shadow shook his head and cleared his mind of the experience "I see now, I must be walking through a pool of Sonic's memories" he murmured "Was that really me? I don't remember…"Shadow quickly made his way through the memories being sure not to trigger any more flashbacks that did not belong to him.

Meanwhile in the outside world Silver, Tails and Knuckles were waiting for Shadow to bring Sonic back despite his body was fixed, eyes closed and sat on the ground since he performed the mental chaos control, "Hey Silver, mind if I ask you something?" asked Tails who was still traumatized by the earlier event "Sure, what is it?" Silver replied before sitting at the top of the shrine steps next to the kid "In the future, how well is Sonic known?" asked Tails "He's a historical hero, why ask?" replied Silver who somehow knew where this was going, Tails continued "Well I was just wandering…how he actually…dies…" Silver sighed, not wanting to give the Tails an answer "It's not my place to say…" "O-okay…" Tails replied, Silver felt sorry for him, he would never have been able to handle the REAL truth.

Back in Sonic's mind, Shadow continued to make his way through the mental labyrinth; he was NOW walking through what seemed to be a swampy area with a dark and murky tone to it "Wonder what's with this place?" Shadow muttered to himself, not recalling any of Sonic's traits that reflected this place, he then began to hear wispy noises before a dark figure rose from the swampy surface "You tried to kill us ALL!" the figure screamed before lunging at Shadow but evaporating before it could touch him, Shadow cursed under his breath before hurrying out of the marshy area "Maybe he has more self-control than I thought", Shadow eventually reached what seemed to be a huge golden temple full of curving paths, loops and the occasional golden statue of an all too familiar hedgehog, he eventually reached a straight hallway which was obviously meant to be sped down as quickly as possible so he obliged, before he knew it, Shadow found himself at a grand door that stood tall and mighty, but when Shadow opened it however he walked into a rough apartment with Sonic playing a video game on the couch, the hedgehog looked up at the ultimate life form "Oh, hey Shadow" Sonic said lazily "I had such a weird dream was last night, I think you were in it and I also think I got stabbed or something, CRAZY huh?" Shadow sighed hopelessly at the sight of how Sonic was taking near death experience "It wasn't a dream you idiot, Mephiles DID try to kill us, we DID combine into super Shadic and YES you WERE stabbed in the back!" Sonic's careless expression faded "Wait a minute, then where am I now?" "You're in a coma you moron" Shadow said, getting highly annoyed by Sonic's lack of urgency "Okaaayyy…so how do WE get out of it?" the hedgehog asked, getting up off the couch "Just take my hand…" Shadow dragged out "Woah woah woah…I like you and all but…" Sonic joked, slowly aggravating Shadow "Just do as I say" Shadow said in a raised voice before Sonic obliged "By the way, thank you…for saving my life back there" Sonic looked amused "Welll I guess that's the best I'm EVER going to get from you sooo what's the plan?" "Hold on" muttered Shadow "Chaos control"

Both Shadow and Sonic sprung back to life with a jolt of energy "SONIC!" Tails shouted, overjoyed to see his best friend alive and well, Silver stood in awe as knuckles went to check Sonic over for mental adjustment "Shadow you did it!" the hedgehog from the future exclaimed towards the ultimate life form, "For a moment I thought we'd lost you…" said Tails who was still bursting with joy, Sonic grinned at his little bro "Me too! But now I'm ready to make Mr gem head as broken as Eggman's diet!

IT TOOK ME A WHILE BUT CHAPTER 7 IS FINALLY OUT! THIS ONE TOOK ME AGES BECAUSE I WAS DOWNRIGHT OUT OF IDEAS FOR SOME OF THE STORY ELEMENTS, I WILL TRY TO MAKE THE OTHER CHAPTERS MORE QUICKLY THAN THIS ONE BUT NOTHING IS FOR CERTAIN...IN ANY CASE THOUGH, HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER!


	8. Aftermath

Chapter 8

AFTERMATH

Sonic stood up and walked towards Shadow "Well, that was surreal" said Sonic who as usual was taking the situation much to lightly for Shadow's liking "It was a DISASTER" Shadow responded "Mephiles escaped and YOU nearly got us both killed" Sonic was tired of this topic "For the LAST TIME! I couldn't let you fall to your death like that!" Sonic ranted "If you're SOO unhappy about it then how about I just push off a CLIFF!" "SHUT IT!" Shadow snapped "I wasn't even referring to that!" Sonic was let again confused by the whole situation "What? But then what are you…" Shadow cut Sonic off in mid-sentence "When we were Super Shadic you made us remove all 4 inhibitor rings, it could have killed us!" "What? How?" Sonic asked "I only ever take off the 2 rings on my wrists because if I ever remove all 4 of them the resulting energy would ultimately destroy my body within seconds, the only reason we survived is because it would take much longer to overwhelm our combined bodies in our Super form" Sonic chuckled nervously, knowing that he had narrowly dodged a bullet with that one "Can we PLEASE just drop this?" Sonic asked, not wanting to take this any further, Shadow calmed down "You're right, this is a waste of time….what we need to do NOW is prepare for Mephiles's next attack"

The group sat down and began to discuss their knowledge on Mephiles, Sonic started "Listen guys, I don't really know anything about this Mephiles guy apart from the fact that he's apparently killed me about 3 times so…" Shadow then moved his eyes towards Tails and Knuckles "Sorry Shadow, I don't really know anything about this guy at all" Tails responded "Me neither" said Knuckles who leaning against the master emerald "Well, that's completely useless" Shadow grunted before looking at Silver, expecting an answer "I met him twice" explained Silver "Once in the future, when he told me to kill Sonic and I also met him briefly during the event when he told me Sonic's location" Shadow aggressively stood up and looked away into the distance "Dammit! None of this is ANY use! If we don't pull our act together Mephiles will come back, slaughter ALL of us and then do GOD knows what to the rest of the world! Sonic then also stood up, completely dumbstruck by Shadow's ignorance of the obvious solution "COME ONNNN!" the hedgehog shouted "We can just go Super Shadic again and kick him like a volley ball to the SUN and back!" Silver merely squinted at Sonic's solution "You can't…" the time traveller said darkly, Sonic looked slightly amused at what he almost took for a bad joke "Uhh…Why not?" Silver paused a moment before continuing "Mephiles said that your powers were equal to his own…which means there is still a chance that the two of you could die fighting him..." Sonic's cocky expression faded slightly "I can't speak for the ultimate life form over there but if that's the sacrifice I have to make then so be it" Silver began to get agitated at Sonic's increasing but still very little concern "You think it's just you on the line?" he started "Do you HONESTLY believe that Mephiles is the last horror that will threaten the world?" Silver continued before beginning to glare at Sonic "You save this world countless other times after today WITHOUT Mephiles showing up in the first place, you INSPIRE many other heroes in my time that have saved the GALAXY on some occasions, I've spent YEARS stopping people like Eggman Nega from changing the world to suite their own selfish desires" Silver glared at Sonic, dead serious "And if YOU think that I'm going to let all of that disappear by letting you DIE HERE…" Silver looked more intimidating than Sonic had seen him even in his former attempt to kill him "…then you've got another thing coming…" Sonic stood back a little as Silver began to glow cyan, but Sonic was far from giving up "When Shadow was in my mind he saw my memories…and I saw his" Sonic said coldly "I SAW what Mephiles has planned for reality once he's done with us and I won't let that happen, bad future or no future at all Silver, what's it gonna be?" he glared at the now defeated time traveller "Who am I kidding? Your right" Silver said shamefully "It's no good trying to protect the future if there IS no future, I just have to accept that my future is a necessary sacrifice for the good of reality" Sonic felt sorry for his time hopping rival, he then chuckled "C'mon, he has to KILL me first!" "Yeah…it's not like he did EXACTLY THAT about 5 minutes ago is it" Silver murmured.

Later while the group was discussing how to fight Mephiles better, Shadow took advantage of the situation and signalled Silver to meet him away from the others "Okay, what is it that's so important that you pull me out of the closest thing you people have to a battle plan?" Silver asked in an agitated voice "For you, how long has it been since Sonic's birthday?" Shadow asked in an authority filled voice "Yester…" Silver started before Shadow swiftly cut him off "Don't lie, I can tell the difference in your voice and your eyes" Silver winced as he realised how busted he was "Fine" Silver dragged out "2 Years" Shadow continued to interrogate Silver "Why lie?" "It's nothing" Silver replied, avoiding eye contact with Shadow far too obviously for the ultimate lifeform to buy it "Look" Silver started "A lot of things have happened in the last 2 years that I REALLY don't want to discuss" "Like what?" Shadow asked insistently "Fine then" Silver responded "3 years from today in the un interfered timeline something terrible will happen and I will have to…to…no, I CAN'T tell you" Shadow didn't bother trying to argue with Silver as the time traveller walked away, but before Silver re-joined the others, he looked back at Shadow "For what it's worth when it happens, I'm sorry…"

CHAPTER 8 IS FINALLY HERE! I HAD TROUBLE WITH THIS BECAUSE I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO FILL THE GAP BETWEEN THE PLOT POINTS I'VE ALREADY PLANNED, THAT BIT AT THE END I MAY OR MAY NOT EXPAND UPON, HOPE YOU ENJOYED :D


	9. Final hours

Chapter 9

FINAL HOURS

Over the next 6 days, Sonic, Shadow, Silver and the rest of the gang tried to formulate a plan to take Mephiles down…with little success, Tails was working around the clock to work out any possible weaknesses that Mephiles could have, but he had no experience with temporal anomalies like Mephiles before and was unknowingly wasting his time.

Knuckles grudgingly left Angel Island with a now minimised Master emerald and set it on a pedestal in Tails's penthouse in Station square during the final 3 days of preparation, "Hey Knuckles! What's up? Said Sonic, patting Knuckles on the back before the Echidna quickly felt his back "If you stuck another Wisp on my back I swear to god…" Knuckles started before Sonic hastily cut him off "Don't worry, that little April fools prank was a one off" Knuckles glared at Sonic for a moment before the stare off was interrupted by Tails "Guys! I think I've just figured out a way to beat that guy! I can't BELIEVE I didn't think of it sooner!" Tails's outburst caught Shadow and Silver's attention "What? What's going on?" Silver asked before Tails began to explain "Mephiles thinks Sonic's dead right?" "Yeah?" Knuckles said, not knowing where this was going "And Super Shadic's power was equal to Mephiles's power" "What about it?" asked Sonic who had a vague idea of what Tails had planned "What if you went HYPER Shadic?" Knuckles merely sighed "That's not going to work Tails, since our LAST little stunt with the Super emeralds against Nazo the Master emerald still needs at least another 2 weeks to have enough power to safely convert the chaos emeralds" Tails grinned as the conversation lead to the most cunning part of his plan "It's simple! All we need to do is use Chaos control to create a time bubble around the Master emerald! It could have months' worth of charge in an instant!" Knuckles thought for a moment before grinning "That could actually work!" the Echidna shouted triumphantly, Shadow merely stood arms folded "Good, I'll come with you to perform the Chaos control and stay in the time bubble to make sure the emeralds are converted" "No, I'll do it" Knuckles said as he minimised the Master emerald and slipped it into his glove "You're not the only one who knows how to use Chaos control and besides, you don't know the ritual on how to convert the emeralds" "Hm…fine" Shadow grunted as Knuckles absorbed the Chaos emeralds into his body and started to turn from red to a magenta colour before a subtle shockwave of air that blew the paper off the tables marked the completion of his transformation into Hyper Knuckles "I STILL can't get over the fact that it turns you pink" Sonic chuckled as he sat legs up on the couch "Chaos control" Knuckles murmured before he disappeared in a flash of green light.

As the minutes past Sonic, Tails, Shadow and Silver waited for Knuckles's return with the Super emeralds, Tails grew worried as another 5 minutes past by "Something's not right" the kid fox said "Knuckles could have been there and back with the emeralds 10 times over by now" Sonic was also uneasy, he jumped up off the couch "Your right, there's something majorly wrong here, I'll run, Silver can fly and you and Shadow can take the tornado" "No need" the up until now silent Shadow said as he walked towards the display case containing 2 of Tails's synthetic Chaos emeralds and smashing it open, Tails winced "HEY! CAREFULL THEIR VERY FRAGILE!" he shouted as Shadow ignorantly grabbed one of the twin emeralds from the now shattered display case "Chaos control!" Shadow exclaimed before group was engulfed in a gush of green light and then regained vision to see the landscape of Angel Island and Shadow with the emerald now turning to golden dust in his hand.

The sightseeing was cut short however when Sonic noticed the look of horror on Tails's face "Tails? What's wrong?" Sonic asked in an increasingly uneasy voice, Tails just pointed with a shaking arm before everyone's eyes followed and then widened at the horrific sight.

There next to the emerald shrine floated Mephiles who was holding the barely stirring Hyper Knuckles by the head "Oh no…" Silver whispered out before Mephiles turned to look at them "Oh I'm sorry, is this one yours?" Mephiles sneered out before effortlessly tossing Knuckles aside like a ragdoll, Knuckles hit the ground with a thud and faded back to his base form "KNUCKLES!" Tails cried out in horror as he and Sonic rushed over to their injured or possibly dead friend, Shadow glared at the soulless monster "7 days! You said 7 days and it's only been 5!" Mephiles tilted his head slightly, his expressionless face concealing his mood "I am not limited by rules Shadow" he taunted "You of ALL people should know that by now"

Sonic desperately shook Knuckles, trying to wake him up "C'mon man, be alright! Wake up!" "Sonic...you don't think he's…" Tails's gut wrenching question was cut short when Mephiles interrupted "Does it REALLY matter? If he's not dead now then I'll finish the job in a minute" Sonic began to shake with anger "Y-you MONSTER…" he stood up slowly and turned to the demon, Sonic's pupils began to fade as an aura of darkness began to flow up his body, Mephiles chuckled at the livid hedgehog "You seem upset, you should be grateful I haven't harmed the kid…well…not YET anyway" Sonic's self-control instantly snapped as his hair turned jet black "DIE!" the hedgehog screamed as he charged at Mephiles in an aura of pure undiluted rage, Mephiles constantly dodged the punches from the enraged hero before he began to try to move in a number of different angles around him "Wait, what is he…" Shadow wandered to himself before realising the painful "He's trying to get into his shadow…" Shadow murmured "SONIC! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" but it was too late...Mephiles swooped through Sonic's shadow and pulled it away from it's figure

"W-what in the?" Sonic gasped as he looked back at Mephiles who was seemingly absorbing his shadow into his body, the demon then began to change, the cracks on his body began to mend themselves and he grew another set of spines out of his head that curved down in a way similar to Sonic's "Now then" chuckled Mephiles in a more cocky voice than he previously spoke "Who wants to play SPLAT THE HEDGEHOG?"


End file.
